By Ayo Bada
The Nestle Milo Secondary Schools Basketball Championship, now in its 18th year, climaxed on Sunday June 5 with the arrival of participating teams.
The national final will end on Sunday, June 12. Over 9,000 schools from across the country participated in the state preliminaries and zonal conferences, which will now culminate in the national finals at the indoor sports complex of the Asaba Stadium, Delta State.
The schools that will feature in the National finals of the girls category include, Wesley Girls Senior Secondary School, Lagos State; Government Secondary School, Gboko Benue State; Harmony Secondary School, Lokoja, Kogi State; St. Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Amarata, Bayelsa State; While Government Secondary School Numan, Adamawa State, Yejide Girls’ Grammar School, Ibadan Oyo state qualified as best losers.
In the Boys’ Category, Henson Demonstration School, Benin City, Edo State; Government Secondary School, Karu FCT Abuja, Crowther Memorial College, Lokoja, Kogi State; Government Secondary School, Barracks, Cross River State; while Osadenis Mixed Secondary School, Asaba, Delta State and General Murtala Mohammed College, Yola, Adamawa State emerged as overall best losers.
Unfolding plans for this year’s edition which is the 18th in the series, Category Business Manager, Milo, Mr Femi Akintola, said this year’s theme is! Building Champs in life! And it exemplifies Milo’s goal of building future champions through sports.
The annual Nestle Milo Secondary School Basketball Championship continues to blaze the trail in creating a platform for Nigerian youths to showcase their basketball skills and sporting talents. We are proud that the championship has remarkably improved the quality of the game and raised the profile of basketball in Nigeria.”
Also, Delta State Sports Commissioner, Tony Okowa, has assured that the state is fully ready for the hosting of National finals of the Nestle Milo Secondary Schools Basketball Championship.
“Delta State is a sports loving state and we will do all within our reach to host a befitting and successfully national finals that, in the end, the sponsors and organisers would not be thinking of taking it out of the state.
All the finalists have intensified their training to ensure the best is achieved. Schools for the national finals emerged from keenly contested qualifiers held in four different conference, Western, Central, Confluence and Equatorial conference.
At the end of the Championship, “Milo in conjunction with Giants of Africa and some NBA coaches led by Masai ujiri of Toronto Raptor’s will organise a unique basketball training programme tagged Nestle Milo Top 50 Camp which will come up in August.
